IT solutions provider Cosentry is buying managed data center provider Red Anvil to expand its presence in the Midwest of the US.

Cosentry will gain nine data centers in five markets across the Midwest including Kansas City, Milwaukee, Omaha, St Louis and Sioux Falls. The company plans to link the Red Anvil facilities with its existing data centers to provide high-speed, redundant data backup and disaster recovery services.

The acquisition allows Cosentry to expand in the Milwaukee market, adding disaster recovery, colocation, cloud services, managed hosting, and other managed service offerings.

Cosentry will continue to offer Red Anvil’s current set of services. It also plans to expand the current Milwaukee facility with a full-service, Tier III data center in the first half of 2015.

Cosentry’s CEO Brad Hokamp said the combination of the two companies will give businesses in Milwaukee and the surrounding area an alternative to Chicago or larger city providers.

Earlier this year Cosentry acquired St Louis-based managed hosting and colo company Xiolink. In July Cosentry invested US$2m to upgrade its network with Cisco Nexus 7000 switches and Cisco ASR 9000 routers.